Rocket Engine Power Cycles
When you first begin messing around with the procedural liquid Rocket engine you will begin to notice that they have 'power cycles'. the Power cycle of an engine is simply the method the rocket engine uses to drive its pumps. In the game there are 6 power cycles. * Gas Generator: 'The Gas Generator cycle is a power cycle in which Exhaust from a ''preburner (a mini combustion chamber separate from the main one) is channeled into the turbo-pump (a special turbine made for rocket engines) which powers the pump for the engine. In Game this results in an ISP (Performance) slightly lower than other options like staged and ''full flow, ''but still not terrible. In the game there are two distinct versions of Gas Generator, Gas Generator 1, and Gas Generator 2. - '''Gas Generator 1: This variant of Gas Gen offers less thrust for the sake of a slight increase in ISP - Gas Generator 2: This variant of Gas Gen offers much more thrust than its Gas Gen 1 counterpart for a slightly lower ISP * 'Staged: '''The Staged Combustion Cycle is a ''closed power cycle (meaning that all gases used to power the turbo-pumps is channeled into the system). Staged combustion uses a preburner just like Gas Gen (normally when the fuel is a hydrocarbon the preburner will run an oxidizer rich mixture which makes things very complicated) , but unlike Gas Gen it channels the exhaust used in the preburner into the nozzle. This helps it achieve a significantly higher ISP than Gas Gen. * '''Full Flow: '''The Full Flow Combustion Cycle is another closed power cycle. This power cycle differs from its staged brother by having two separate preburners, one is very fuel rich and the other is very oxidizer rich (this has an added benefit of keeping temperatures down). These two different exhausts are then channeled into the combustion chamber and combust. This System can lead to a very high ISP. * '''Pressure-Fed: '''The Pressure Fed cycle operates by using highly pressurized gas to pressurize a tank so that when a valve is opened fuel is forced through. This can prove to be very difficult as the tank pressure must be higher than the chamber pressure for the fuel to be forced through, but its simplicity can make up for it. Pressure fed engines have a decent vacuum ISP which can exceed Gas Gen, but they have a remarkably bad Sea Level ISP. * '''Electric: '''This power cycle is quite different from the rest as it relies on Electric motors to drive its pumps. Now in real life this type of power cycle has similar ISPs to other closed cycle cycles, such as Staged. But in game the Devs have seem to have significantly nerfed it, to the point where it sits at around the same ISP as Gas Gen. This may be because of the fact that in real life these engines rely on a battery that they carry to power the motor and this is how they make up for it. Category:Help